Watch as Waffles tries not to get raped by bums, freeze to death, or get beaten to death by the cops. Our money is on the bums.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Simple Poker 101

Here is a situation where loud mouth says I played a hand wrong. He always seems to have some good comments about my play while he is pushing his A3's into A9's or sucking out pushing his pocket tens into kings. If your gonna play one hand a tourney though I do not think A3 should be the one. Good suckout. I hate doing this by the way because while most of you never listen to a word I say about poker if even one of you gets better thats less money for me to be a break even player with. So please argue and call me a donk and NEVER use this move.

I am up against BuddyDonk co-host of the BuddyDonk WGHEY radio station. I probably had him covered 2:1-3:1 something around that. Anyway.. he opens up and raises and I look down and see a 79 s0000ted. We had a limper so I call in position. The flop comes Q7x two spades. Buddy bets out.

Now here I am with second pair and there is a flush draw on the board. Buddy potted the bet and I felt he was strong based on his play up to this point. Let us say I put him on KQo. So he does not have a flush draw. Here is the deal. I call his bet knowing full well that he is almost certainly ahead.

The turn is a spade. The flush has cometh. I have meekly called his flop bet and now with the flush Buddy is scared. I can see him shaking in his boots. Fuck. What would Waffles call me with.. he must be on the fucking flush draw.. why can I never win? $&*^$*.

Meanwhile I am laughing my ass off as he obviously checks scared of that big bad ole flush and so I lead out with a bet that looks like I really want him to call me. He lets all his time run out and finally makes a call. He says later "I knew I was fucking ahead". Here is some advice.. if you know you are fucking ahead bet the board!!!! Seriously that is the biggest mistake most players make.

Anyway.. the river gives me trip sevens.. and I am now ahead. Depending on the player I would consider betting the river hard to take the hand down. Buddy had second pair here and I think he would have folded to a jam on the river even if I did not hit my hand.. Instead I value bet my trips and scoop in a great pot against JJ. It has the added effect of inexperienced players believing I am a total donkey.. and a few hands later Buddy calls me all the way to the river with nothing and loses another pot.

This kind of play as long as you do not get carried away with it is a very common and essential tool that MANY MANY players use. Unlike Smokkee contending it was a donkey move it was actually a very well thought out play. Sometimes you can not explain things to level one thinkers though. Better luck next time.

10 Comments:

I don't recall Smokkee's comment, so my comment is no reflection on him, but I agree with you 100% in your explanation on why you played the hand. It makes perfect sense. People get annoyed when they see that play because they think you donked it up with a crappy pair of sevens and got lucky. They don't know the strategizing that goes into this seemingly crazy play. Add in the extra benefit of fooling players in future hands, and its a great tool. Well played, sir.

I was just going to say what Jordan said. It's funny because I just read and article by sbrugby (Brian Townsend) about floating and I think this applies exactly. Too bad you don't have the bankroll to take another 3 million off sbrugby. Great play.

I was tilted a few tournaments ago after RakeFeeder 2 outered me after all in, and succumbed to a large all in call by BuddyDank who had top pair shit kicker (a call I would never make; pure gambling).